Nuxt.js Vercel Builder

This Vercel builder takes a Nuxt.js application defined by a nuxt.config entrypoint and deploys it as a serverless function in a Vercel environment.

It features built-in caching of node_modules and the yarn global cache (even with dependency changes!) and multi-stage build for fast and small deployments.

When to use it

If you are using Vercel and need SSR rendering, @nuxtjs/vercel-builder is the ideal way to ship a fast, production-ready Nuxt.js application that scales automatically.

If you do not need SSR rendering, consider deploying a statically generated Nuxt.js application instead. See this guide from Vercel for more information.

You can also find more information on the Nuxt.js website.

How to use it

The first step is to set up a Nuxt.js project.

To get started, make sure you have installed the Nuxt.js dependencies with the following command:

yarn add nuxt

Then, in your project directory, create a pages directory with some example pages, for example; the home index page, pages/index.vue:

<template>
  <div>
    Works!
  </div>
</template>

Create a simple nuxt.config.js file:

export default {
  head: {
    title: "My Nuxt.js Application!"
  }
};

Then define the build in now.json:

{
  "version": 2,
  "builds": [
    {
      "src": "nuxt.config.js",
      "use": "@nuxtjs/vercel-builder"
    }
  ]
}

Upon deployment, you will get a URL like this: https://nuxtjs-8fnzfb1ci.vercel.app

See Basic example for a more complete deployable example, including an example of how to set up vercel dev support.

See Deploying two Nuxt apps side-by-side for details on deploying two Nuxt apps in one monorepo.

Using with TypeScript

vercel-builder supports TypeScript runtime compilation, though it does so in a slightly different way from @nuxt/typescript-runtime. It adds in a pre-compilation step as part of building the lambda for files not compiled by Webpack, such as nuxt.config.ts, local modules and serverMiddleware.

References to original TS files in strings outside of modules or serverMiddleware may therefore cause unexpected errors.

Using with serverMiddleware and asyncData

A common use case in Nuxt is to use serverMiddleware put an API server on the same server as Nuxt. This requires some set up:

1. Set up serverMiddleware config in nuxt.config.js:

     serverMiddleware: [
       { path: '/api', handler: '~/api/index.js' },
     ],

   Note: This assumes that your API will be served at /api and its source code is in api/index.js (same as Nuxt’s documentation).

2. Go to your Project Settings → Environment Variables and add an environment variable VERCEL_URL to all environments. When you type in the name, Vercel will say that it is a system environment variable and its value will be automatically populated by the system.

3. Set up serverFiles in now.json:

   {
     "version": 2,
     "builds": [
       {
         "src": "nuxt.config.js",
         "use": "@nuxtjs/vercel-builder",
         "config": {
           "serverFiles": ["api/**"]
         }
       }
     ]
   }

4. Set up @nuxtjs/axios to use the base URL from Vercel.

   const baseUrl = process.env.baseUrl || (process.env.VERCEL_URL ? `https://${process.env.VERCEL_URL}` : undefined)
   export default {
     // ...
     modules: [
       ['@nuxtjs/axios', withoutNullishEntries({ baseURL: baseUrl })],
     ],
     env: withoutNullishEntries({
       baseUrl
     }),
   }
   
   function withoutNullishEntries(x) {
     return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(x).filter(([k, v]) => v != null))
   }

Configuration

serverFiles

• Type: Array

If you need to include files in the server lambda that are not built by webpack or within static/, such as a local module or serverMiddleware, you may specify them with this option. Each item can be a glob pattern.

Example:

{
  "builds": [
    {
      "src": "nuxt.config.js",
      "use": "@nuxtjs/vercel-builder",
      "config": {
        "serverFiles": ["server-middleware/**"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

generateStaticRoutes

• Type: Boolean
• Default: false

To pre-render routes during the build using nuxt generate set this to true. Routes that are not generated will fallback to the server lambda. You will need to specify the routes to be generated in your nuxt.config.

Example:

{
  "builds": [
    {
      "src": "nuxt.config.js",
      "use": "@nuxtjs/vercel-builder",
      "config": {
        "generateStaticRoutes": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

tscOptions

• Type: Object

If you need to pass TypeScript compiler options to override your tsconfig.json, you can pass them here. See the TypeScript documentation for valid options. Example:

{
  "src": "nuxt.config.ts",
  "use": "@nuxtjs/vercel-builder",
  "config": {
    "tscOptions": {
      "sourceMap": false
    }
  }
}

You can also include a tsconfig.now.json file alongside your tsconfig.json file. The compilerOptions from those files, along with any tscOptions passed through now.json, will be merged and the resulting options used to compile your nuxt.config.ts, local modules and serverMiddleware.

Technical details

Dependency installation

Package dependencies are installed with either npm (if a package-lock.json is present) or yarn.

NOTE: Using yarn is HIGHLY recommended due to its autoclean functionality , which can decrease lambda size.

Private npm modules

To install private npm modules, define NPM_TOKEN as a build environment in now.json.

Node version

The Node version used is the latest 12.x release. Alternatively, you can specify Node 10 in your package.json - see Vercel documentation.

now-build script support

This builder will run a given custom build step if you have added a now-build key under scripts in package.json.

Troubleshooting

Environment variables

Because of Nuxt.js' approach to environment variables, environment variables present at build time will be compiled into the lambda. They may also be required at runtime, depending on how you are consuming them.

You may, therefore, need to include them in your now.json in both the env and build.env keys (see Vercel documentation). For example:

  "env": {
    "MY_VARIABLE": true
  },
  "build": {
    "env": {
      "MY_VARIABLE": true
    }
  }

If you are using Nuxt 2.13+, it is recommended to use the new runtimeConfig options which can decrease this duplication by only requiring that you set the variable once:

  "env": {
    "MY_VARIABLE": true
  }

License

MIT License

Documentation and builder inspired by Next.js by Vercel

Copyright (c) Nuxt Community